Freak

in terms of the draft, i think we would be keen on Jack Higgins. I think Jason Taylor would love his work ethic. He is small but skilful, and has the pace our midfield needs. I have a strong feeling he will be in the red and blue if we dont trade our pick away.

seriously whats the point of the thread if people are going to dish up 'trust the footy department' comments. anyway, if we are to get someone decent we would have to give up someone also. irrespective of who has signed and who is coming out of contract, players who i think are tradeable are: watts (games like the weekend are the reason i would be ok with him leaving), anb (although i do like his intensity) and tyson (he can accumulate but he is a bit slow to make decisions and gets caught holding the ball a lot). So the above 3 players all carry value.

vince is a guy that I definitely want in the team but each week he gets way too cute with the ball and turns it over. Kicking a 25metre dab kick off one step, threading a needle, sideways, deep in defence. He needs to cut that out asap and get off his pedestal. The team works too hard to simply have Bernie blow torch the ball without a care in the world. I wouldnt mind him at half forward to be honest where he is a nice shot for goal, can hit lead up targets and can use his tackling pressure to lock the ball in.

It seems that the days are gone that we will have top 5 picks so we may need to draft a bit more for needs than ever before. With that in mind, what sort of player do you think we need? For me: 1. Key position defender: Too much reliance on both mcdonald brothers and Frost and all do scare me deep in defence with their foot skills and decision making. a key defender with above average foot skills would be high on the pecking order. Basically Jake Lever. 2. Small forward: Garlett won't be around forever but a genuine speedster with goal sense would be worth targeting. I don't think JKH or Dion johnstone are in that level. 3. Quick midfielder: Oliver, Viney, Lewis, Tyson, Jones, Brayshaw, Petracca arent overly quick. Oliver and Petracca are the most explosive of this bunch over shorter distances but not neccessarily over 50metres. Hunt, Garlett and Frost show the value of speed and another quick mid would be a priority instead of a slower inside mid types that Jason Taylor loves.

To me, its irrelevant that hogan only had 10 touches. he couldve had 20 for all i care, he didn't chase or have any 2nd efforts. Dont get me wrong i loved hogan in his first season but don't get caught up in the name guys. How discouraging would it be for the rest of the team to see hogan jog/walk when he should be busting his arse off. and gawn has been off but he is trying. hogan is running around with no intensity or effort. you cant compare the two. To be honest, its good to hear that im not the only one that has this view. id put him at casey until he demonstrates consistent defensive pressure and fixes his body language. we had our best wins without him because guys like pedo come in with spirit

why do people continuously call players genius' for displays of common sense? oh, mason wood looks at the clock and runs it down before kicking. what a genius! leigh montagna waiting for opponents to come to him before kicking a goal from the square to waste time..what a genius. it's common sense! it's like people have never played competitive sport before. might i add, whats stopping a player from starting his goal kicking run up at 30 seconds from 50m from the mark and simply walking in at snails pace wiping another significant chunk of time off. sometimes i feel like i'm the only genius around!

Hogans second efforts were a disgrace. completely non existent. it's embarassing. And this has got nothing to do with being out of form or fitness its about mental intent. And its a part of his game thats never been addressed or fixed. Needs to be dropped. Cant afford to carry guys who don't chase. People have a go at guys like melksham and even in previous seasons guys like Dunn. but at least they have a crack.

I'm so sick of this sh!t. I'm so sick and tired of Goodwin's post match interviews of 'it's not the type of footy we want to play'. It's getting predictable. You're the bloody coach!! You have a whole week to get your team to try. That's all..try! If the players aren't buying into Goodwin then he needs to go. Simple as that. I don't care how early it is or as good as our win against adelaide was. We're not consistently trying! Pathetic. Also for fellow demonlanders, you guys were calling for Hannan's head but clearly you don't know anything about footy. He needed a string of games to feel at home on an afl ground and this performance was always coming. He played a good game today and would've lost by more without him. Now for the umpires. Disgusting. That lack of 50m against Bugg was pathetic. Yes, Bugg should've kicked it anyway but it was an absolute buzz kill. I'd like there to be a review into that decision and whichever umpire was in the prxominity to be sent back to country footy until they understand what a 50m penalty is set up for. Petracca, terrible!! fumble fingers and kicking is sh!t. How long does it take for him to build a tank and play as a midfielder. He shanked the ball so much today. disgusting. Get some bloody awareness and stop getting chased down from behind. My God! Oscar McDonald. I seriously can't put up with this guys sh!t for 10 more years. I've already gone through Tom Mcdonalds lack of awareness, disposal and lack of basic human IQ for many years, how can I go through another 10!!! The club has physio's, specialised coach, psychologists, doctors, motivational speakers etc. at their disposal all week and they put up cr@p like that in the 1st quarter. disgrace. I want to say we 'should be near the top of the ladder' with all of our close losses but what's the point of making finals if we don't even try. These guys get paid to shank the ball for 2 hours and play one-way football. I can't take another calm Goodwin presser. Season is over.

stop running under the ball weideman. Lewis, hit a fricken target or go back to casey. and everyone just lift. Goodwin, get your players to lift during the week. for f%ck sake. bunch of soft [censored]!

Are we really in a need to rush back Hogan anyway? It's a serious question. He has not shaken his negative attitude and anyone who has played competitive sport knows how profound a negative team mate can have on the rest of the team. His last 12 games of football he has averaged 0.75 goals a game. UNDER A GOAL A GAME.

we just don't have enough players with high footy IQ. People were talking about how smart Montagna was last week but stalling in the goalsquare before kicking a goal. It's not smart, it's common sense. it's embarassing to think people hadn't thought of this before. We need players to sharpen up and understand the moments of a game.

The last 2 goals for geelong at the end of the 3rd probably lost us the game I would say. clearly we needed to slow the game down and chip it around until the siren went. Momentum is everything and had we have gone into the last qtr 15 points up, we would have won. I thought it was poor footy IQ by all players and coaches as we did have the ball during that time. Anyway, as others have pointed out a: a fwd line of Hannan, smith and weideman was completely non-threatening. is Pedersen injured at the moment? we live in a stats world and players often get judged sometimes by how much ball they get and fantasy points etc. but viney and Oliver didn't have influences on the game. As inside players they still need to spread and be accountable defensively. I'm not all negative though. Jones,Hunt and jetta were our clear top 3 players. Great games.

Lewis and Hogan will both be missing next week so we should be prepared for that. The game was very frustrating. It seemed to me that carlton were clogging up the whole game to make it a scrap and it was. But our decision making and execution was awful basically all day. Many kicks were 25m-35m passes which either went straight to the opposition or to a 50/50 contest. The risk outweighed the return. Kick it long, or kick it short and keep possession. Oliver, love him. He may start getting tagged soon at this rate. I'd like to see Petracca at more centre bounces. He isn't the best kick for goal and he has shown to be an elite junior midfielder so throw him in there more often. And offset that by playing him deep forward instead of high half forward. Tom McDonald is a great defender. Straight up. What he can't do is make good decisions or kick well. That free kick he gave away just about summed up Tom. And 90% of the time he marks the ball he always looks to switch it which is scary stuff. The McDonald brothers as pointed out by Lloyd and Schwartz are our main weaknesses on the ground. Vince and Lewis and Hibberd need to run behind them to get the handoff. I personally rate Harmes. Always have. But I might be on my own. Brings tenacity and outside speed. I'd actually pick him before Tyson to be honest. But each to their own. Melksham and Stretch are fine. They provide us with outside run. When you've got guys like Viney, Jones, Tyson, Oliver, Brayshaw, Lewis, Neal-Bullen you need guys with a bit of zip and even though skills wise they are bit iffy, you need the speed. Viney has definitely lost a bit of influence on the game the first 2 weeks. Due to the form of Oliver maybe? Garlett is always unfairly criticised. He would be one of the first picked each week. Salem found the ball and used it well but to be honest, he was drafted as a midfielder so until he improves his fitness and pushes into the midfield then I'll be withholding judgment on him. Great user of the ball but with Vince and Hibberd down there (and lewis at time), i'd rather Salem in the middle hitting lead up forwards. Hogan, still very demonstrative. I almost wouldn't mind if he missed this week to give Weideman a go without the huffing and puffing of hogan.

Lol. True. But there was genuinely not much to report. its hard to read into a 20m kick to kick and some run throughs

Popped along to training today. And whilst its the start of pre-season i would say most of the players wouldve been doing a lot of individual training in the off season. Because of this i was keen to see who was bulking up and who wasn't. Players that look to me to have changed body shapes include: Vandenberg: looks a lot fitter and looks to be covering the ground a lot better than last season. Petracca: he looks dramatically different and has lost the big hips that he had this time last season. A picture of fitness. O.Mcdonald: he is still thin but he is showing signs of filling out. It won't be this season but maybe next pre-season he'll start to really fill out but i like the signs. Billy stretch: he looked super fit last pre season and he now looks even more fit to go along with some strength. Watts: hasnt bulked up but has lost weight in his legs and looks set for a midfield role if in the best 22. Trengove: didnt see him do much but he has the perfect physique if it wasnt for his ankles. Salem: he has trimmed down again and now looks like he can maybe play more midfield time. Hasn't bulked up: Vince: he never does though Gawn Max king: i feel that he hasnt changed since the day he arrived. He still very much has a boys body. Viney: still big. Maybe a bit too big in the hips/legs but as a true inside mid maybe its not too much of an issue as long as he can track his own player around the ground. Anyway back to the training: The day was windy so kicking was dreadful. Terrible kicking for goal as well as field kicking. The draftees didnt do much. They just played kick to kick, did some run throughs etc. The ruckman we picked up looks to have some pretty questionable foot skills but he is a project playet and i wont be looking at senior action for a couple of years. Oliver lead the run throughs and covers the ground quite well. His short kicking was a tad floaty but it was super windy. Weidemans body needs a lot of work. He has a boys body and as he should but i'd be wanting an extra 5kg of muscle before contemplating senior football. His kicking was quite good. I couldn't spot hogan or brayshaw at today's training. They did some half ground ball movement finishing in a goal, but trying to emphasize using the hands and finish off close to goal. Not much else to report.